More Americans will be casting their ballots via the U.S. Post this year because of the severity and health risks of the coronavirus pandemic, but the debate over whether it is possible and remains safe to brew with just over 80 days until election day.
That dispute is flowing to the forefront for essential workers who will be tasked with ensuring the integrity of votes in part: postal workers.
They will be the first point of contact with the absent moods of voters, responsible for herding them through rain, sun, snow or hail.
“We have been voting by post for generations, military personnel have been voting by post since the Civil War … In 2016, I think 33 million people voted by post, almost one in four voters, and now we have a pandemic and it will be the only way many people can vote safely, “said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 current and former postmen and postwomen, Fox News Digital reported.
In eight states, each registered voter will send a mail request to request an absentee ballot. In 25 states, voters will even have to apply for an absentee ballot. And in another eight states, voters still need an excuse outside of coronavirus to vote absent.
The creation or change of mail-in voting plans is in direct correlation with partisan politics: Many Democrats are pushing for the extension of access to the ballot box, while many prominent Republicans oppose it, saying it could lead to rampant voter fraud.
“The benchmark for this has already been set by the five states that do all the absentee ballots through the country and they are very good and they report very low incidents of fraud and that fraud is caught within the system,” said Ivan Butts, vice president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, Fox News reported.
Some of those allegations come from President Trump, who for months advised against pressure from many states to increase postal voting because of health care from personal voting at polling stations amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has repeatedly, without proof, claimed that an increase in postal voting would lead to mass voter fraud.
Ronna McDaniel, GOP faction chairman, reiterated the same sentiments in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
“They do not have the calculators and the staff. Therefore, it took six weeks to get results in New York. Could you imagine, we have an election day and it takes two to three months to get the results, whatever that would do to this country if we are as divided as we are? “
However, value experts do not agree.
“Voting by post will not make the 2020 elections substantially substantial or massively corrupt,” said Ellen Weintraub, of the Federal Election Commission, in a statement. series of tweets defending the practice. “There is no basis for that advantage.”
In addition, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pleaded that the US Postal Service would do everything “to deliver election mail on time, in accordance with our operational standards”, after reports suggested that there was an attempt to carry election mail.
“The law says fast, reliable and efficient services. Prompt means fast. It does not mean slower and later. People expect things faster, not slower and later … The Postal Service itself does training in the election process. Ballots become full priority. If envelopes of a certain color, workers will be trained to look for them to ensure that they are processed, “said Dimondstein.
The Postal Service has been working with a funding shortfall for years. Yesterday, Rep.Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., introduced legislation that would prohibit the Postal Service from “implementing any changes to the operations or level of service it had on Jan. 1, 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic has calmed down. “
Union bosses like Dimondstein are also asking for more funding for USPS, and hope that something will be allocated in the next round of virus release legislation.
“I’m sure Congress should do it. I’m not sure they will do it,” Dimondstein said, acknowledging that in the CARES Act of March for USPS no money was worked out.
Dimondstein said members of his union were insulted by the charges imposed against postal workers, that they might not be equipped to handle the flow of votes and called partisan attacks against the service “shameful”, calling the fact that if anything should be polarized in this climate, it is the men and women of the Postal Service.
“The integrity of the postal worker is beyond doubt. We take our oath of office seriously. A vote is private, it’s safe. We’re not moving it to a candidate, party, [but] look at the American people and their right to vote. “
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